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Graduate Programs

Georgetown University offers graduate students the opportunity to research and specialize in studies related to the environment through our Climate Center, Public Policy Institute, Department of Biology, Law Center, and School of Continuing Studies.

Detailed Information

The focus of the Environmental and Regulatory Policy track is on whether and how government regulation can improve public welfare. Federal, state, and local regulations of technology, energy, transportation, telecommunication affect all of us. According to the Office of Management and Budget, on just the federal level, major regulations accounted for between $99 billion and $484 billion in benefits and between $40 billion and $46 billion in costs over the last 10 years. Environmental and regulatory policy is a complex field that transcends a single academic discipline. One must be knowledgeable about economic tradeoffs, the values and ethics associated with these tradeoffs, the political and administrative process of making regulatory decisions, the legal framework of regulations, and the science underlying applications of regulations towards health risks.

The First Law of Ecology that “everything is connected to everything else” applies also to the field of environmental law. Environmental law’s roots can be found in both common and statutory law, its values and principles in ethics, science and economics. Fields of law as disparate as bankruptcy, securities regulation and criminal law have been affected by environmental requirements. Although environmental law is a relatively new subject, it has grown dramatically in scope and complexity in the last 25 years, presenting students with a daunting array of laws, regulations, institutions, and acronyms.

In response to the demands of the field, the Law Center has recently restructured its environmental curriculum in order to offer a richer variety of environmental law courses. For organizing purposes, it may be helpful to think of the courses as being divided into three categories: core courses (necessary to gain a basic understanding of the field), advanced or specialized courses (for students interested in gaining more proficiency in different facets of the field), and related courses (knowledge of which may be as important as learning the content and structure of the environmental laws themselves).

The Department of Biology provides graduate students with an introduction to graduate-level biology across diverse fields of biology. The program offers opportunities to study ecology, evolutionary biology, and behavior, and you will receive expert guidance in research, training in becoming effective communicators in science, and a foundation in teaching pedagogy. Many Biology graduate students, both past and present, are engaged in basic and applied research related to environmental biology.

Beginning in the fall of 2007, the Georgetown University History Department will offer a full fellowship each year to a Ph.D. student in environmental history. Students interested in any and all historical periods, any and all geographical regions, and any and all themes within environmental history are encouraged to apply. The fellowship includes a five-year stipend, currently of slightly over $18,000 per year, plus health insurance coverage. Fellows will learn about the nuts and bolts of academic life through work as teaching assistants in history courses, and perhaps in environmental studies courses, in most years while holding the fellowship. However in some years they may instead work as research assistants. Inquiries: Prof. J.R. McNeill (mcneillj@georgetown.edu).

The Georgetown Climate Center is fully integrated with life at Georgetown Law and provides opportunities for students to serve as research assistants, gaining valuable, real world experience.

Research assistants work closely with the Center’s full-time staff and state officials to produce reports that help shape some of the biggest climate and energy decisions being made by policymakers today. Click here for job openings.